Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and the party’s new treasurer Nick Candy have met US billionaire Elon Musk at Donald Trump’s Florida retreat.
The party said the pair had “learned a great deal from Musk about the Trump ground game” during an hour-long meeting at Mar-A-Lago on Monday.
It added that they would hold “ongoing discussions on other areas”, although no details were offered.
It comes amid speculation that X owner Mr Musk, a prominent supporter and major donor to Trump’s re-election campaign, could donate to Reform UK.
Earlier this month, Farage said that although Mr Musk was a political supporter, he had not asked for a donation and “one has never been offered”.
Farage posted a picture of himself alongside Mr Musk and Mr Candy, who was announced as party treasurer last week, standing in front of a painting of Trump that hangs inside the Mar-A-Lago complex.
Reform UK thanked the US president-elect for allowing them to use the building for the meeting, adding it showed the “special relationship” between the UK and US was “alive and well”.
Mr Candy – a former Conservative donor – has said he exchanged messages with Mr Musk after his appointment was announced, but has refused to be drawn on any negotiations over a potential donation. After Mr Candy’s appointment, Farage said “we don’t know anything about Elon Musk other than he is supportive of our position,” adding: “If people offer us money legally, we’ll take it.”
Mr Musk has become a prominent critic of Labour Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and has backed Reform UK to form the next government in posts on his social media platform X.
As a US citizen, the billionaire cannot make personal political donations in the UK.
But there have been reports suggesting a donation could be made through the British branch of X.
‘For the birds’
Farage has dismissed newspaper speculation that a donation from Musk could be as large as $100m (£78m), adding that the idea that X could give a donation of that size to any UK-based party was “for the birds”.
The Reform UK leader has said the UK’s election watchdog “would take a view that a donation that came from a company would have to be proportional to the size of the company in this country”.
Mr Musk, who was born in South Africa, donated $75m to US President-elect Donald Trump’s re-election bid, with $72m of that going to a political action committee he set up called America PAC.
Mr Musk’s father Errol has suggested the SpaceX and Tesla mogul might even be prepared to become a UK citizen to make a $100m donation to Reform UK.
Earlier this month, he told GB News: “I’m eligible for British citizenship, so is he, I suppose.”
Mr Musk is yet to comment on the meeting with Farage and Mr Candy.